Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/501

Needle cases. Two pieces of swan thigh-bone, 6.4 and 7.6 cm long respectively, have possibly been used as needle cases; classification is, however, uncertain as the specimens are otherwise unworked.

Bodkins. Pl. 84.5 (P 12. 82) is a bone point of bear fibula, probably used as a bodkin; the same may presumably be said of a pointed seal fibula.

Soapstone cooking pots. Three fragments, all of roundish vessels. The largest piece is 10.3 cm long, 10 cm broad and about 2.5 cm thick, of a round or oval vessel with almost upright sides and rounded rim. A hole, in which are the remnants of a piece of baleen cord, presumably for a repair, has been sealed with a gravelly mass, presumably clay; on the inside is a crust of food, outside a layer of soot. Pl. 84.4 (P 12. 170) is an edge piece of a fairly large vessel, ornamented with three longitudinal lines, two on the rim itself and one on the outside just under the edge. The third piece is a small fragment with a hole.

Pottery. In house ruin 6 was found a piece of an earthen vessel which, on arrival home, had broken in two pieces, both of which are shown on Pl. 84.12 (P 12. 164), one from the side the other from the edge. This was quite a small piece, originally 6½ x 4 cm and about 1.4 cm thick; it is of a dark, gravelly, rather loose clay body, of similar consistence to the pieces from Naujan (than which it is, however, darker) and to earthen vessels from the Mackenzie district, brought home by Knud Rasmussen; the vessel has scarcely been properly baked, merely dried. The piece is very slightly rounded and has no thick crust either of food or soot. In this specimen we thus have a connecting link between the ceramic at Naujan and the western regions.

Meat forks, marrow extractors and similar bone points. Twentythree specimens, thin, pointed pieces of bone, most of them (21) of caribou leg bone and no obvious working other than the point. Five of these may be presumed to be meat forks or spits; this is presumably the case with a fairly thick point of antler, 27 cm long, curved, with a small hole in the rear end, as also four pointed, rather curved marrow-bone splinters, 13 to 18 cm long.

Ten specimens are probably marrow extractors; only one (Pl. 84.11. P 12. 19) is broader, with a hole in the rear end; the others are slender, roughly shaped, most often with a flat point and lengths from 12 to 18 cm; one, of antler, seems to have been made out of an arrow shaft; the others are of leg bone. There are furthermore eight bone points, the use of which cannot be definitely determined; one, 16 cm long, slender and pointed, has two grooves running round it